


Never Leave You Alone

by AndyAO3, AntipodeanPixie



Series: One for All [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Custom Female Ryder, Custom Male Ryder, Disabled Character, Mental Health Issues, Minor Character Death, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 13:52:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10765560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndyAO3/pseuds/AndyAO3, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntipodeanPixie/pseuds/AntipodeanPixie
Summary: Cassandra has always looked after Ted.





	Never Leave You Alone

The first time, they were five and a quarter. When you've so few years to your name, the months seem so very important. Cassandra squeezed his hand and trotted down the corridor for the dispenser. They'd get a cookie each to nibble while waiting for Mum. Ted stayed behind to fill their water bottle, holding it under the fountain and standing on the block meant for the little kids like them. Then a shadow at his back.

"Hey weirdo." Basil Smith was big for his age with nothing better to do than mimic his parents. 

Teddy tried to fight him, little fists inarticulate with the rage that only came from five months of being under concentrated fire. 

The water bottle was swept aside and broken. His mother had bought that for them. He'd shared it with Cassandra. She loved that water bottle. A bruise was flourishing on Ted's cheek, lurid against the sickly sallow skin. He could hear his sister shout, hear running steps. 

"I'm gonna beat your sister up too, and it's gonna be your fault, weirdo." 

It's a terrible thing, the noise of somebody's neck breaking under the pressure of altering mass effect fields. Ted was going to have heard it an awful lot by the time he was thirty. Basil on the ground across the hall, Ted devolving into a panic attack because he was a biotic just like Miss T'varli and he had just hurt somebody really really badly and Basil wasn't getting up and he could hear shouting and running, somebody grabbing him by the shoulders, big adult hands, tears running down his face and unable to look away from Basil surrounded by two adults, Miss T'varli and Mr Parthonus.

"Don't touch me!" He howled, voice shrill with terror. "Don't touch me don't touchme don'ttouchme" shaking like he'd fall apart any moment now, or make the world fall apart maybe even the whole Citadel and-

"Theodore!" He couldn't see Basil or the grownups anymore, Cassandra had bullied her way in between. She pushed and pinched at the adult (Mr Q, he found out later) holding him, making them let go. "Theodore, Teddy, it's me. Just look at me ok!" And he did. He stared at Cassandra like the answers to all the world lay in his sister's black eyes and black hair so unlike his own, the ladybird clip in her fringe and the sharp curl of her eyelashes. She held his hands, turning him around to face her and the wall. With a howl, he buried his face in her shoulder, gripping tight to her frock while her arms wrapped around him. "Go away!" Her high and piping voice demanded. "Go away! Go help him, and call our mum! We don't need you!" 

 

 

The second time, they were 14. Cassandra had displayed biotic talents. She and Ted had lessons together, their class mostly filled with Asari children, two Turians, another human and a volus. Ted met Diorno in robotics class. When he gave his presentation on early human AI development, prior to discovering the relays, it wasn't to the teacher, or even his sister in the back of the room. It was to Diorno, who looked at him with eyes full of interest. They swapped research notes. That lead to swapping a whole lot more. Cassandra put a moratorium on talking about Diorno more than once a day. Diorno was full of life and zest and so smart. Ted was in love. Diorno was perfect, wonderful. Ted enlisted Cassandra's help to learn how to hide his extranet history from their parents, and dove into research. He wanted to make it worth Diorno's time. 

Things began to unravel when they curled up together with very little clothing, talking about robots, AI, Science. The Geth came up. Diorno thought AIs should be destroyed. They could never be people, all cold logic. 

Things spiraled. Got worse. It ended with Ted curled up screaming on the floor, everything trashed through what were once several rooms, C-Sec called. A biotic on hand kept a shield up around Ted. Somebody got Diorno a shock blanket. The officer tried to call their parents; they were still minors. Mum was having exploratory surgery done. Nothing too major, in and out. She couldn't be reached. Dad's VI answered. Cassandra was already on her way, her omnitool giving her the diverted call. 

She swept in not like a whirlwind, or a hurricane. No, more the inexorable wave that follows after deep seismic activity, drawing back from the shore only to gather strength to subsume everything in her path. When the officer tried to stop her, she quoted C-Sec regulations at him and then discarded him as unimportant. Diorno did not exist. She spoke to the Asari with the field, stepped past her, and then dropped to her knees and swept up a sobbing, gibbering Ted into her arms. She rocked him back and forth, shushed him and pet his hair like they were five and a quarter again. 

Diorno and Ted broke up three months later, Diorno unable to stop flinching every time Ted moved too fast. Mum found him a more competent shrink, an Asari who was specializing more and more in young humans with unstable or unwanted biotic talent. 

 

 

They cycled through numerous diagnoses over the years, before settling on one when Ted was just turned 18. Manic Depressive Borderline. Stamped out on forms, in reports. Ted tried hard. It was working. Then Vinnie happened. 

Vinnie had a charming broad smile. Vinnie was tall, handsome, well formed. A few years ahead of them as a cadet. Broad clever hands showing Ted how to do well. Showing Ted a lot of other things. He was starstruck. He tried to be careful, not have a repeat of Diorno. Cassandra watched. Cassandra listened. And when Vinnie proved himself too much like her in the space between veneer and core, she knew. When she saw the marks in Ted's soul. When Ted showed up at her door, small and broken, eyes large and lip and hands trembling, she folded him into her arms again, his delayed growth spurt finally bringing him back up to her height though he'd never be tall, her fingers pressing against the nobs of his spine. 

Vinnie destroyed Ted. Because he could. Because nobody'd stop him. Because he was beloved and skilled and knew exactly what he was doing to people. He left Ted like the others in his trail of broken toys. But the others didn't have Cassandra. 

Ted thought Vinnie graduated. And he did. He went out to party with friends. Had a little too much to drink. Ted was at home, manically focusing on the latest in robotics research, cybernetics and ways to fix his subpar body. 

Vinnie got sloppy. He groped an Asari, told his companion not to pout, stumbled to the bathroom, head full of red sand. 

Black eyes watched him. He reached the hallway. Wavered. Fell. With the flashing of the club lights, the noise, an Asari and a Turian showing off with biotics by the bar, nobody saw Cassandra sip her drink and blink. 

A terrible shame, really. Vinnie had always enjoyed partying hard, enjoyed a few drinks. It was probably the red sand that did it; taking that and alcohol at the same time could cause acute alcohol poisoning. Once his brain stem ruptured, it would have been difficult to save him even with trained medical staff on hand.

Cassandra finished her drink slowly. Watched an annoyed bar staff member try to rouse Vinnie. Saw them get worried. Check his pulse. The sudden panic'd conversation with the bar manager. Emergency staff pushing their way through the crowd. A stretcher. Quick steps outside. 

Theodore's biotics were much stronger, but Cassandra had precision and the will to use it.

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes, yes she DID straight up murder a man for hurting her twin. Nobody ever knew.


End file.
